Let’s Get Pentecostal
BOAZ MICHAEL
The theme of this year’s conference is “The Gifts of the Spirit.” To be honest, when the First Fruits of Zion staff first sug- gested this theme, I was not excited about it at all. I’m not what you might call a Pentecostal type of person. Growing up, my Jewish background was secular and non-religious, until my family got involved in a Baptist church, and then eventually Messianic Juda- ism, but I have never been what you might think of as a holy roller. So when the staff suggested this theme for the conference, I groaned. I thought, “What in the world would we possibly have to say about the gifts of the Holy Spirit?” I pictured us trying to act
Pentecostal and Spirit-filled.
But as the discussion continued, I began to realize that I had never really understood the gifts of the Spirit from a Messianic Jewish perspective.
Despite the fact that most Messianic Jewish congregations are patently charismatic, you never hear any real teaching about the gifts or their role from the kingdom perspective, the Jewish perspective. Instead, the type of charismatic experience you most often see in our Messianic Jewish congregations and Hebrew roots communities tends to look, behave, and function exactly like mainstream charismatic Pentecostalism.
I’ve had lots of experiences with Pentecostal-type behavior in the Messianic Jewish movement, and frankly, I’m not that im- pressed. Of course, it’s dressed up with some Jewish garb and termi- nology, and punctuated with some shofar blowing, and Messianics saying “Ruach HaKodesh” instead of “Holy Ghost.” But the truth of the matter is that the Messianic Jewish movement has not yet taken ownership of the role of the Spirit and the gifts of the Spirit. We have not even asked, “What should this look like as a Jewish expression in Jewish space?” We’ve just taken the whole charismatic worship experience into our synagogues and communities without ever asking how it fits in Jewish space.
We have imported the whole charismatic culture directly from the mainstream church. It’s even in the same packaging, and to be honest, no amount of dressing it up with Jewish garb makes it feel or look any more authentic.
Don’t misunderstand. I’m not saying there is anything wrong with the conventional church’s expression of the Holy Spirit. I’m just saying that it’s not Messianic Judaism.
This whole situation reminds me of the early Hebrew Christian movement. The Hebrew Christian movement, which came before Messianic Judaism, was just the same as the mainstream church in every way, except that the Christians happened to be Jewish Chris- tians. But the fact that they were Jewish did not in any way change the Christianity that they had adopted. The Hebrew Christian movement rejected Judaism and Jewish practice. It rejected Torah. Messianic Judaism, on the other hand, is supposed to be an authentic expression of Judaism, as first pioneered by the first- century followers of Yeshua. It’s not supposed to be just “Jewish church”; it’s supposed to be real Judaism brought into the light
and service of Yeshua.
Recontextualization
Let’s think about this. The Messianic Jewish perspective has required us to rethink almost every area of Christian expression and theology.
Consider the day of worship. In the church, Sunday is the tra- ditional day of worship. In many denominations, it is even more than that; it is venerated as a kind of “Christian Sabbath.” In the transition from Hebrew Christianity to Messianic Judaism, though, the seventh day of the week was reinstituted as the Sabbath, the day of rest and worship. Jewish believers who leave the mainstream church for Messianic Judaism almost uniformly gather and worship on the seventh-day Sabbath, not Sunday. The rest of the ecclesiastical calendar changes, too. Most Mes- sianic Jews do not celebrate Easter, Christmas, Lent, Epiphany, or any of the other traditional Christian holidays. Rather, they celebrate Pesach, Shavu’ot, Sukkot, and the rest of the Jewish holidays.
Messianic Jews have also rethought the role of the Torah. In Christianity, the Torah is not an authoritative source of law or morality for Jews or Gentiles. In contrast, Messianic Jews, though they may differ on exactly how the commandments of the Torah should be observed, are almost universally more ready to accept the Torah as an enduring and eternal covenant between God and the Jewish people.
Many Messianic Jews have recontextualized the Eucharist as well, preferring to observe it in conjunction with the feast at which it was instituted—the Passover Seder meal. Rather than a weekly or monthly occurrence, in many expressions of Messianic Juda- ism the liturgical remembrance of Messiah’s death comes once a year on Pesach.
Baptism is another institution that has taken on a new meaning in Messianic Judaism. Rather than being understood as a sacrament unique to Christianity, baptism in Messianic Judaism is closely connected with the ancient practice of mikveh, ritual immersion. These are just a very few examples. Messianic Judaism has a fundamentally different approach and interpretation in regard to
all these issues, and many others.
In the Messianic Jewish movement, we have learned to reassess each of these institutions and incorporate them into our faith and observance in their original Jewish forms. Rather than just taking them over from the Gentile-dominated mainstream church, we have recontextualized them within Judaism. In doing this, we have discovered their original meaning, purpose, and significance.
So that’s our objective at this conference. We want to recon- textualize the role of the Holy Spirit and the gifts of the Spirit. To accomplish this, we must first understand the Spirit and the gifts from a Jewish perspective. What were the gifts? How did they func- tion among first-century believers? Why? What was their purpose? What role did they play in first-century Messianic Judaism? Once we have answered these questions, we need to explore how an authentic Jewish perspective on the Spirit differs from the conventional patterns of spiritual gift activity in the Gentile church. We do not seek to do this in a critical way, or in a way that demeans anyone else’s faith tradition and experience with God. Not at all. We only want to understand the difference so that we can distinguish between the authentic, apostolic, Jewish expression of spiritual gifts and some of the later embellishments.
Finally, when we know what it is we are looking for, and what it is that we are not looking for, then we may begin the process of seeking the Spirit, walking in these spiritual gifts, and bringing them back to life in a way that will be both consistent with Messianic Judaism and life-giving to the whole body of Messiah.
Let’s Get Pentecostal
Now, let’s get Pentecostal.
Most people who identify themselves as Pentecostal consider the story of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pen- tecost as the primary narrative of their identity—hence the name “Pentecostal.”
At the same time, most people who identify themselves as Pen- tecostal are probably not aware that Pentecost is a Jewish festival prescribed by the Torah and celebrated in Judaism to this day, albeit under its Hebrew name, Shavu’ot. In Judaism and Messianic Judaism, we celebrate Shavu’ot (or Pentecost, if you prefer) as the anniversary of the giving of the Torah at Mount Sinai.
Before we begin to discuss the spiritual endowment of the gifts of the Holy Spirit, we need to revisit Acts 2, just briefly, to place Pentecost itself back into its Jewish context.
Ten days after the ascension of our Master Yeshua, the forty- nine days of counting the omer concluded. “The day of Pentecost was fully come.” On that day, “they were all together in one place.” Where was that one place? Most likely the Holy Temple, where an observant first-century Jew was supposed to be on the day of Pen- tecost. Many Christians believe that the outpouring of the Spirit occurred in the upper room. But our Torah Club commentaries argue that the event took place in Solomon’s Portico of the Temple.1
While they were there, the sound of a violent, rushing wind filled the portico, but the disciples felt no wind. The sound seemed to descend from the sky, but not a breeze stirred the air. Hebrew uses
the same word (ruach, רוח) for both “wind” and “spirit.”
This is a Hebrew word every Christian should know. When we speak of the Ruach, or the Ruach HaKodesh, we are talking about the Holy Spirit of God.
So they heard a mighty Ruach.
Yeshua taught, “The ruach blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but do not know where it comes from or where it is going; so it is with everyone who is born of the Ruach” (John 3:8). The sound lasted only a few moments, but the noise of the rushing wind drew attention throughout the Temple courts.
Then a blaze of fire appeared above them, separating into indi- vidual flames. Each flame came to rest upon an individual disciple before vanishing from sight.
The tongues of fire represented the endowment of the Ruach HaKodesh, the Holy Spirit—the same Spirit that rushed upon Yeshua as a dove when he emerged from his immersion in the Jordan.
The Spirit appeared as tongues of fire because the Spirit was going to enable the apostles to speak articulately and in tongues— languages—they did not otherwise know.2 The disciples were all “filled with the Holy Spirit.”
This is not just a New Testament idea. The Torah uses the same terminology to describe the endowment of God’s Spirit on Joshua, Caleb, Bezalel, and Oholiab.3 In those examples, the Torah com- pares a person to a vessel. God’s Spirit can fill a human being like water can fill a jar.
Before we go any further, we need to discuss the meaning of the term “Holy Spirit.” In the book of Isaiah, the Loro speaks of the Messiah saying, “Behold, my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen, in whom my soul delights; I have put my Spirit upon him” (Isaiah 42:1).
Another important Messianic prophecy says, “The Spirit of the
Loro shall rest upon him” (Isaiah 11:2).
The term “Holy Spirit” used in the New Testament and other first-century writings means exactly the same thing as the Old Testament term “Spirit of the LORD.”
In rabbinic literature such as the Talmud and the Midrash, the sages and rabbis use the term “Ruach HaKodesh” (הקודש רוח) regularly as the equivalent to biblical terms such as “Spirit of the
LORo” and “Spirit of God.” In the apostolic era, Jewish people said “Holy Spirit” instead of “Spirit of the LORo” to avoid using the name of God.
The outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon an individual is not unique to the New Testament. Moses and all of the prophets proph- esied only by means of the Holy Spirit, and in Judaism, the gift of prophecy is simply called “Holy Spirit.”
According to Judaism and according to the words of our Master, King David composed his psalms under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.4 All the scriptures were written by inspiration of the Holy Spirit.5 The Holy Spirit came mightily upon Israel’s heroes, seers, and prophets to empower them.6
Likewise, as I mentioned, the Holy Spirit came upon Israel’s kings. This same Holy Spirit—the Ruach HaKodesh—rested on our Master without measure, and after his ascension, this same Spirit of the LORo has been poured out on his disciples.
On the day of Pentecost, the disciples heard the sound of a mighty wind, and they saw flames of fire. Then the disciples began to speak and prophesy in a multitude of languages that they did not know.
The Hebrew word lashon (לשון) means both “tongue” and
“language.” For example, Judaism refers to the Hebrew language as Leshon HaKodesh (הקודש לשון), i.e., the “Holy Tongue.”
When the book of Acts says that they “began to speak in other
tongues” (Acts 2:4), it should be translated to say, “They began to speak with other languages,” that is, foreign languages they did not know.
The Giving of the Torah
The miracles of the mighty wind, the tongues of fire, and the speak- ing in other languages allude to the giving of the Torah at Mount Sinai.7 Just as Passover memorializes the exodus from Egypt, Shavu’ot is a remembrance of the giving of the Torah at Mount Sinai. It is the anniversary of the day on which God descended on to Sinai and spoke the Ten Commandments. For that reason, Shavu’ot is called the festival of Mattan Torah (תורה מתן), the “Giving of the Torah.”
On the first Shavu’ot, signs and wonders accompanied the giving of the Torah at Mount Sinai. There was smoke, fire, and the cloud on the mountain. The mountain trembled and the sound of a shofar filled the air. The voice of God spoke audibly to the entire nation.
Let’s take a look at the key verse:
Now when all the people saw the thunder and the flashes of lightning and the sound of the trumpet and the moun- tain smoking, the people were afraid and trembled, and they stood far off. (Exodus 20:18)
The Hebrew of Exodus 20:18 literally says, “And all the people saw the voices and the torches.”
How do you see voices? What does that mean? And what are these torches that they saw?
The disciples of Rabbi Yishmael explained the fiery voice of God that appeared like torches at Mount Sinai with a verse from Jeremiah:
Is not my word like fire, declares the Loro, and like a hammer that breaks the rock in pieces? (Jeremiah 23:29)
Listen to this passage from the Talmud:
The disciples of Rabbi Yishmael taught that the verse “and like a hammer which shatters a rock,” means that just as a hammer is divided into many sparks, so too every single word that went forth from the Holy One, blessed be He, [at Sinai] split up into seventy tongues.” (b.Shabbat 88b)
According to the Talmud, the voice of God at Mount Sinai di- vided into seventy voices speaking seventy different tongues, and those voices looked like hot sparks flying forth from a hammer’s blows on stone. The voice of God appeared to Israel as hot, burning torches descending like sparks.
Compare this passage from the Midrash:
The word went forth from the Holy One, blessed be He, to the right hand of Israel, and went around the camp of Israel, eighteen mil by eighteen mil … and the sound of it went from one end of the world to the other, as it says [in Psalm 29:7], “The voice of the LORo hews out flames of fire.” … the commandment itself went in turn to each of the Israelites and said to him, “Do you agree to observe me?” (Song of Songs Rabbah 1:13)
Here’s another one:
The Torah says [in Exodus 20:18], “And all the people saw the voices.” Note that it does not say “the voice,” but “the voices”; wherefore Rabbi Yochanan said that God’s voice, as it was uttered, split up into seventy voices, in seventy tongues, so that all the nations should understand. (Shmot Rabbah 5:9)
And here’s another passage from the Talmud:
Rabbi Yochanan said: “What is meant by the verse [in Psalm 68:12(11)], ‘The LORo announced the word, and great was the company of those who proclaimed it’? Every single word that went forth from the Almighty divided up into seventy tongues.” (b.Shabbat 88b)
What does this all mean? It means that the disciples of Yeshua experienced the day of Pentecost as a second giving of the Torah. They knew the rabbinic legends about the words of fire dividing into seventy languages as they left the mouth of God. They knew the story of God’s voice speaking to all mankind in every tongue. Those legends gave significance to the miracles and signs and wonders that they experienced on Shavu’ot, the anniversary of the giving of the Torah. The tongues of fire and utterances in every tongue pointed directly to the Mount Sinai experience and underscored a connection between his Holy Spirit and his holy Torah.
The spirit and the Torah
Shavu’ot draws a line of connection between Exodus 19 and Acts
2. The festival superimposes the giving of the Spirit in Jerusalem over the giving of the Torah at Sinai and links the two events.
Understanding the Torah connection is absolutely foundational to any discussion of the role of the Holy Spirit in the lives of believers.
According to the prophets, the giving of the Holy Spirit is a sign of the final redemption and the coming of the kingdom. It says in Jeremiah 31:33 about the New Covenant in the kingdom: “I will put my Torah within them and I will write it on their hearts.” In Ezekiel, the Loro says that in the kingdom, “I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules” (Ezekiel 36:27).
According to these prophets, God gives the Holy Spirit in order to place his Torah within the believer’s heart. It follows that the Spirit within the disciple of Yeshua and the Torah of God must be in agreement. Both are from the same God, and God is one. The Spirit and the Torah cannot be separated from each other.
So the very first thing we need to realize about the work of the Spirit is that it is connected to the Torah. The giving of the Spirit took place on the day of the giving of the Torah. That’s not a coincidence. It means that the work of the Spirit is fundamental to Mes- sianic Judaism. If the Torah is important to Messianic Judaism, so is the Holy Spirit. We should not try to separate the two. They are married together.
The Three-legged Table
These prophecies also indicate that the giving of the Spirit is a sign of the Messianic Era, the kingdom of heaven. The prophets say that in the Messianic Era, God is going to pour out his Spirit to cause us to walk in his Torah.
So as we discuss the Holy Spirit and his work in our lives and in our communities, we have to do so in light of the message of the gospel, the message that the kingdom of heaven is at hand.
So these three things form a sort of holy trinity (so to speak): the giving of the Torah, the giving of the Spirit, and the message of the gospel that the kingdom of heaven is at hand.
I believe that we need all three. It’s like a three-legged table. If you take one of these three legs away, it’s not going to work. It’s going to tip over.
Maybe some of the problems and abuses we associate with charismatic Christianity have to do with the fact that one of the legs of the table is missing. The church has the Holy Spirit leg, and the church has the gospel leg, or at least part of the gospel leg, but it is missing the Torah leg.
Maybe some of the problems we have in Messianic Judaism have to do with the fact that we are missing a leg too. Maybe we have the Spirit leg and the Torah leg, but we don’t use them together. And I’m not sure we have the gospel leg all the time either. What do I mean by that? I mean that we do not always apprehend the whole message of the Jewish gospel–not just that Yeshua died for our sins, but that the kingdom of heaven is at hand.
So let’s get Pentecostal. That’s what this conference is about. But in the process, let’s make sure that we have all three of these foundational pillars in place: the Spirit, the Torah, and the gospel. It is exciting to imagine the potential of a Messianic Jewish movement that has all three of these pillars. Let’s pray that God gives us a generous outpouring of his Spirit. Let’s pray that he gives us a genuine love for his Torah. And let’s pray that he reveals to us the gospel message of his kingdom. A cord of three strands is not
easily broken.
If we come away from this conference with all three of those things in place and at work in our lives, our lives will never be the same.
Inheritance of the oisciples
The significance of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon the disciples of Yeshua is directly related to our Master’s anointing in the Holy Spirit at the time of his immersion in the Jordan River.
The Spirit of the LORo that rested upon our Master Yeshua came to rest upon his disciples after his ascension, just as in the story of Elijah and Elisha. When Elijah ascended, the Spirit of the LORo which had been upon him was divvied out to his disciples. His disciple Elisha, who saw him ascend, received a double portion. Likewise, the Pentecost story in Acts 2 occurs only ten days after the disciples of Yeshua saw him ascend, and they received the Spirit of the LORo that had been upon him.
A similar story in the Torah helps to explain the giving of the Holy Spirit to the disciples of Yeshua. In Numbers 11, Moses ap- pealed to God for administrative help with the nation of Israel. The Loro told him to assemble seventy elders in the Tabernacle:
Then the Loro said to Moses, “Gather for me seventy men of the elders of Israel, whom you know to be the elders of the people and officers over them, and bring them to the tent of meeting, and let them take their stand there with you. And I will come down and talk with you there. And I will take some of the Spirit that is on you and put it on them, and they shall bear the burden of the people with you, so that you may not bear it yourself alone.” (Numbers 11:16–17)
A few verses later, in the twenty-fifth verse:
Then the Loro came down in the cloud and spoke to him, and took some of the Spirit that was on him and put it on the seventy elders. And as soon as the Spirit rested on them, they prophesied. (Numbers 11:25)
The Loro imbued each man with a portion of the Spirit of God that rested upon Moses so that, collectively, the seventy elders operated in the power and authority of Moses. No one individual had the full anointing of the Spirit, but together, they formed the body of Moses, so to speak. The apportioning of the Spirit to the seventy did not diminish the measure of the Spirit on Moses. Just as the flame of a single lamp can ignite many other lamps without any diminishment to itself, the Spirit upon Moses quickened the seventy elders.
This incident is the key to understanding what happened in Acts 2 and what continues to happen today as God puts his Spirit on the disciples of his son Yeshua.
If we read a little further, there is an interesting epilogue to the story:
Now two men remained in the camp, one named Eldad, and the other named Medad, and the Spirit rested on them. They were among those registered, but they had not gone out to the tent, and so they prophesied in the camp. And a young man ran and told Moses, “El dad and Medad are prophesying in the camp.” And Joshua the son of Nun, the assistant of Moses from his youth, said, “My lord Moses, stop them.” But Moses said to him, “Are you jealous for my sake? Would that all the LORo’s people were prophets, that the LORo would put his Spirit on them!” (Numbers 11:26–29)
Moses was talking about the future when he said, “I wish that all the LORo’s people were prophets, and that the LORo would put his Spirit on them!” He foresaw a coming day when the LORo will pour out his Spirit on all flesh. He did not want to be the only prophet; he wanted all God’s people to know God and experience the revelation of God as he did. That’s what the kingdom of heaven is all about.
In that day, HaShem says, “They will all know me. No man will say to his neighbor, ‘Know the LORo!’ They will all know me from the greatest to the least.”8
And Yeshua says that in that day, the least person in the kingdom will be a greater prophet than the greatest prophets in this age.
So the giving of the Holy Spirit, I hope you can see, links together the Torah of Moses and the gospel of the kingdom. Remember our three pillars:
• The Spirit of the LORo
• The Torah of Moses
• The good news of the Messianic Kingdom
Put on Love
The problem with discussing this sort of thing is that the use of the gifts of the Spirit is a divisive issue. The church has a history of fighting about the meaning of the Holy Spirit and the role of the Spirit. Think of how many churches have split over this one issue. As we learn about the gifts of the Spirit, let’s make sure that we don’t let a spirit of division into our midst.
Let’s agree to keep an open mind as we learn. Let’s not allow ourselves to be divided by differences in opinion over the meaning of this gift of the Spirit or the meaning of that sign of the Spirit. Let’s put on love. Let’s remember to pursue love. Remember the words of the apostle as he taught the Corinthians about the spiritual gifts:
If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing. Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways.
For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known. So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.
Pursue love, and earnestly desire the spiritual gifts. (1 Corinthians 13:1–14:1)
Now, may HaShem be pleased to cause us to stand upright on that firm foundation of the Torah of Moses, the Spirit of God, and the gospel of the kingdom.
eIoIotes
1 See Torah Club: Chronicles of the Apostles on Acts 2.
2 Joseph Fitzmeyer, The Acts of the Apostles: A New Translation with Introduction and Commentary (The Anchor Bible; Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1997), 238.
3 Deuteronomy 34:9; Numbers 14:24; Exodus 35:31, 35:35. Cf. Avot Rabbi Natan 43.
4 E.g., Brachot 4b; Mark 12:36.
5 B.Megillah 7a.
6 E.g., Judges 3:10, 6:34; 2 Chronicles 15:1, 20:14.
7 The following material appears in Torah Club: Chronicles of the Apostles on Acts 2.
8 Cf. Jeremiah 31:34.
For the Common Good
CARL KINBAR
Many years ago—it seems as if it was another lifetime—I was a Jewish Christian attending a very large charismatic conference. In the midst of literally thousands of worshiping men and women, I stood that day enraptured with the presence of God. Then, bowed by his majesty, I prostrated myself on the floor as the singing continued. Suddenly, I felt a hand on my shoulder. I did not look up. After a few moments, a man spoke these words to me: “You will feed on the inheritance of your father Jacob.” I waited for more, but that was it. “You will feed on the inheritance of your father Jacob.” When I finally glanced over my shoulder, the man was already walking away.
I had no idea what he meant. It turned out that his words were a quote from Isaiah 58, but they did not ring a bell for me at that time. And I would have told you that I knew Isaiah 58 pretty well; it is about God’s chosen fast. But I just supposed that the man had seen my face and figured out that I am Jewish. And yet, I was sure that his message to me was at least intended as a prophetic word. Still, “your father Jacob”? It was odd. And then, in one of those “duh” moments, I remembered that my father’s name was Jacob: Jacob Kinbar. But that made no sense to me either, because I was pretty certain that my dad would not leave me much of an inheritance, if anything at all: first, he did not have any money; second, he had rejected me because of my faith in Yeshua.
But I could not get those words entirely out of my mind. Just when I thought I had forgotten them, I would find myself mulling over them again. As with many powerful prophetic words, it was not possible for me to let them go; or I could say that they would not let me go. To make a long story short, I eventually found the words in Isaiah 58 and realized that the passage had something to do with the land of Israel, the vision of Jacob’s ladder, and what God had promised to Jacob and his descendants. With this realiza- tion, I began my journey toward the day, not long after this one, when I had what I call my “Jewish awakening”—when I began to understand more fully what it means to be a descendant of Jacob. Even after I understood the reference, though, the words would not let go of me. I did not understand the full significance of what had been spoken to me until several years later, after my relationship with my dad had been healed and he had passed away. Unexpect- edly, some funds came into my father’s estate posthumously and eventually passed to me. This sudden windfall enabled me to work only part time for a number of years so that I could devote most of my time to serving in the body of Messiah.
I believe that I would have received the inheritance even if I had never heard the prophecy. But the prophecy made me know that God was with me on my life’s journey, just as he had been with Jacob. It made me know on the kishka-level, the gut level, that my whole life is utterly laid bare in God’s sight from beginning to end and that I am comfortable with that fact because God is good. Not just because he gave me an unexpected windfall, but because God’s knowledge of me is so thorough and reassuring, and because he can use whatever means he chooses—even a stranger at a confer- ence—to communicate that to me.
This story is one of many I could tell of how spiritual gifts have been a meaningful and active force in my life and in the lives of men and women I have known. Many of my forty years as a Yeshua believer have been spent in moderately charismatic congrega- tions—first churches, then Messianic congregations—in which gifts of the Spirit were encouraged and practiced. I believe in the gifts of the Spirit.
My first and longest-lasting charismatic church experience began when I was a new believer and concluded many years later, when I transitioned to the Messianic Jewish movement after several years of leadership service in my church. Our church emphasized worship and teaching. We took Bible study very seriously and did our best to justify our beliefs and practices by appealing to biblical statements, patterns, and examples. We read 1 Corinthians 12–14 with a quiet confidence that we properly understood and were following Paul’s instructions about the gifts of the Spirit.
For example, we understood a word of knowledge to be a piece of knowledge or insight about a person or situation that one would know only because the Spirit had revealed it to him. A word of wisdom was understood by us to be God’s counsel for a particular person or situation. Prophecy was a word from God intended to edify, exhort, or console; it was usually not predictive and might include a word of wisdom or a word of knowledge. We also taught and spoke frequently about being led by the Spirit; when people began to express the gifts in precisely the ways we had been taught, we felt that they were being led by the Spirit and being biblical at the same time!
The conference I attended those many years ago was a gather- ing of charismatic Christians like any other. On that occasion, and on some others, I experienced or operated in the gifts of the Spirit. I have reason to believe that these experiences were authentic. To me they were meaningful and sometimes even profound. I saw three different overt miracles, including healings, one of which affected me in a powerful way.
So now, as I present a different understanding of the nature and practice of the gifts, please understand that I have not rejected what I believed and experienced earlier in my life. However, I have realized since then that my church’s understanding of the gifts and our practices were largely shaped by our charismatic culture, a culture that we had inherited from older Pentecostal and char- ismatic movements and modified over time. In other words, we understood and practiced spiritual gifts according to a tradition that cannot actually be found in 1 Corinthians 12–14. And yet, as with Torah, so with the instructions presented in these chapters, without a tradition or some commonly held rules there is no way to practice spiritual gifts.
My transition from the church to the Messianic Jewish world took several years, during which I was in full-time pastoral and teaching service in the church while also serving as an elder in the Messianic congregation. Over time, my personal practices changed. This included increased observance of the Torah and serious study of it under the direction of several rabbis, in particular one rabbi who also had a Ph.D. and who was involved in traditional and aca- demic study on the highest levels. I studied the Bible, and especially the Apostolic Writings, on my own, hoping that over time I could shed the cultural lenses through which I had read it for so many years. This would eventually affect the way I read the chapters in 1 Corinthians and understood the gifts of the Spirit.
Spiritual gifts are usually understood and practiced according to charismatic tradition, even within the Messianic movement. While some Messianics are comfortable with this, others do not see how the gifts can be separated from their “Christian trappings” and do not want to have anything to do with them. Yet if we take Paul’s words seriously, the gifts of the Spirit are necessary for the growth and maturity of the body of Messiah.
As the Messianic movement matures, it must develop its own tradition to shape the way spiritual gifts are expressed in our con- gregations in ways that are appropriate for us. I believe that the Shavu’ot conference that inspired the writing of this book is the first significant effort to understand the gifts of the Spirit in a clearly Messianic perspective and to contribute to an emerging Messianic tradition concerning them. By their very nature, traditions do not form overnight. They take shape over time in communities, and are nurtured in an atmosphere of open discussion among those who are informed and invested in the process. I trust that the confer- ence, and this book, will contribute to that discussion.
Our First Priority: Knowing God
Paul’s instruction about the gifts of the Spirit needs to be under- stood within the context of the circumstances that had arisen in Corinth after he left. At the beginning of 1 Corinthians, Paul wrote of his thankfulness to God that the congregation was enriched in Messiah Yeshua “in all speech and all knowledge” and that they were “not lacking in any gift” (1 Corinthians 1:4–7 NASB). They did not need to be initiated in the gifts of the Spirit; they only needed a refresher course and further instruction in the nature and purposes of the gifts. So his instructions in chapters 12–14 are not complete in themselves; they are meant to correct the Corinthians and to set them on the right path.
Paul writes, “To each one is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good” (1 Corinthians 12:7 NASB). In this essay, I hope to explore the meaning of the term “common good” and to investigate its implications for the practice of spiritual gifts in the Messianic community.
Contributing to the common good was a well-known concept in Paul’s time. Although various cultures had different ideas about what actually constituted the common good, the emphasis was always on what would potentially benefit every person in that culture. In Paul’s thinking, gifts such as healing primarily benefit individuals; they point to God’s power and love without necessarily speaking even a word to their recipients. Speaking in an unknown language also benefits individuals, unless what is spoken is inter- preted for the benefit of all. So because he prioritized the common good over that of the individual, Paul’s emphasis was on the verbal gifts, which had the greatest potential to benefit the community as a whole. Gifts such as the word of wisdom, the word of knowledge, and prophecy are profoundly important because they build up the community, call us to holy living, and comfort us in our pain or loss (1 Corinthians 14:3).
The word I received that I would feed on the inheritance of my father Jacob was a personal message. It may have benefitted others indirectly, but it did not reach the level of the common good. Very few of the prophetic words I experienced in the charismatic world, even the ones addressed to communities, seemed to contribute effectively to the common good. There may have been several reasons for this, but I think that the main one was that we were so embedded in our cultural understanding of the gifts that we did not try to deepen our grasp of God’s intention for them.
Paul places a heavy emphasis on knowledge, which the verbal gifts impart. Forms of the word “knowledge” are found forty-two times in 1 Corinthians, twelve of them in chapters 12–14. The verbal gifts of the Spirit are meant to convey not only knowledge, but also the wisdom that enables us to use it well. For Paul, the word “knowledge” has specific connotations. He writes: “For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face; now I know in part, but then I will know fully just as I also have been fully known” (1 Corinthians 13:12 NASB). We do not see God face to face right now. Our knowledge of him is partial, but “then” it will be full. A full knowledge of God means much more than an increase in information about him. The term “face to face” also implies depth of relationship; it implies full intimacy with God.
Paul writes that “when the perfect comes, the partial will be done away” (1 Corinthians 13:10 NASB). We know God now through prayer, study, and various other experiences, and knowing him is central to our individual and community lives. We may even have experienced one or more unique “close encounters” with God. We seek to experience his nearness and cleave to him at all times. But then, we will know God face to face, a perfect nearness and a seamless cleaving that we cannot experience in this life.
For Paul, the common good consists, first of all, in knowing God—now in part and then fully. He is not writing eschatology here; he wants the Corinthians, and us, to understand that while spiritual gifts are essential and must be pursued, their goal is not perfection in this life. They are a foretaste of the Messianic Age and of what is in store for us when we are forever face to face with God. It is important for us to keep this in mind, because the perfect can become the enemy of the good. Seeking a perfect union with God in this life—knowing him fully—may make us less open to the simpler goodness God has created for us to enjoy here and now.
The Knowledge and Wisdom
of God: The urucified Messiah
Actually, Paul tells his readers much more about what he means by knowledge and wisdom in the beginning of 1 Corinthians than he does in chapters 12–14. Chapters 1 and 2 in particular are very rich chapters, and I can only touch on a few examples from them. When Paul first came to Corinth, he had made up his mind to “know nothing among [the Corinthians] except Yeshua the Mes- siah and him crucified” (1 Corinthians 2:2, my translation). In his preaching and teaching in this city, he kept a laser-like focus on the one who bore the griefs and sorrows, the sins and sicknesses of humanity so that God’s mercy could come to us. In Corinth, Paul articulated this Messiah powerfully, but he did not attempt to use
A Pledge of what is to come
D. THOMAS LANCASTER
On the last, great day of the festival, Yeshua stood and called out, saying, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. One who believes in me, as the word is written, from his belly will flow rivers of living water.” He said this about the spirit that those who believe in him would receive, because the Holy Spirit was not given before Yeshua was glorified.” (Yochanan 7:37–39, DHE)
We confuse ourselves regarding the giving of the Holy Spirit when we assume that, prior to the Shavu’ot event described in Acts 2, Jewish people did not have the Holy Spirit. That assumption also leads us to believe that non-Messianic reli- gious Jews after that could not possibly receive inspiration from the Holy Spirit, act in any capacity of the Holy Spirit, or perform miracles by the Holy Spirit. These assumptions, I believe, are based squarely upon a misunderstanding of John 7:39 where it says, “He said this about the spirit that those who believe in him would receive, because the Holy Spirit was not given before
Yeshua was glorified.”
The Holy spirit was Iot Yet Given
These words cannot mean that the Holy Spirit was not yet active and moving among Israel. It would be a mistake to assume that the Holy Spirit did not play any role in the nation or in people’s lives prior to the outpouring in Acts 2.
The term “Spirit” or “Holy Spirit” is the equivalent of the common biblical Hebrew term “Spirit of the LORD” or “Spirit of God.”1 God’s Spirit moved on the waters of creation, and through his Spirit, he interfaced with humanity. All the prophets spoke only by inspira- tion of the Holy Spirit. The psalmists wrote by the Holy Spirit. The Spirit of HaShem filled the builders of the Tabernacle with wisdom, insight, and discernment, and the Spirit rushed upon the kings of Israel at the time of their anointing. Even in the New Testament, Zechariah, Elizabeth, and Mary all prophesied in the Holy Spirit prior to the birth of the Master.
Moreover, the Spirit of HaShem filled his holy Tabernacle and
Temple. The Greek language has no equivalent for the Hebrew Shechinah (שכינה); the New Testament writers used the term Holy Spirit to describe the dwelling presence of God.
When the Gospel of John says that the Spirit had not yet been given, it does not mean that the Spirit of God had not yet been active in Israel. Instead, it refers to two eschatological promises that we find in the Prophets:
1. The return of the Shechinah
2. The outpouring of the Spirit on all flesh
The Return of the shechinah
The sages taught that the Shechinah never rested on the Second Temple as it had rested upon the First Temple.2 In his prophecies about the third Temple, the prophet Ezekiel foresaw the return of the Shechinah as a hallmark of the Messianic Era.3 When John says “as yet the Spirit had not been given,” he alluded to the promise of the return of the Shechinah. In the age to come, the dwelling presence of God will fill his Temple as he once filled the Tabernacle and Solomon’s Temple.
The Holy Spirit came upon the disciples as they gathered for the festival of Shavu’ot. The evidence in the book of Acts suggests that they gathered in the Temple, in Solomon’s Colonnade, and the Spirit came upon them in that place. Solomon’s Colonade thereafter became their regular place of assembly on the Temple Mount. This is significant because Solomon’s Colonnade was accessed by the gate facing east, that is, the gate that faced the Mount of Olives. The prophet Ezekiel foresaw the Divine Presence of God entering the Temple from the east:
As the glory of the LORD entered the temple by the gate facing east, the Spirit lifted me up and brought me into the inner court; and behold, the glory of the LORD filled the [house]. (Ezekiel 43:4–5)
Notice that this prophecy from Ezekiel 43:5, corresponds exactly with Acts 2:2. As the Holy Spirit rushed upon the believers who congregated inside “the gate facing toward the east,” the sound of rushing wind “filled the whole house where they were sitting” (Acts 2:2), just as Ezekiel predicted, “The glory of the LORD filled the house.”
In the words of the apostles, the disciples of Yeshua collectively became “a temple of the Holy Spirit,” “a holy temple in the Lord … a dwelling of God in the Spirit,” “a spiritual house for a holy priest- hood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God.”4
So when the Gospel of John says that the Spirit had not yet been given, it alluded to this Messianic-era prophecy of the return of the Shechinah which now has been fulfilled, in part, by the outpouring of the Spirit on the disciples.
The Outpouring on All Flesh
When the Gospel of John says that the Spirit had not yet been given, it refers to the promise of the outpouring of the Spirit on all flesh. The prophets predicted a unique endowment of God’s Spirit in the Messianic Age. “I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh,” HaShem promised (Joel 2:28). The messianic outpouring of the Holy Spirit brings the exalted revelation of God that people in the kingdom will enjoy. “They shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest” (Jeremiah 31:34).
This Messianic Era endowment of the Holy Spirit will not only reveal the knowledge of God, but it will transform human beings, quenching the rebellious sin nature and inspiring obedience: “I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules” (Ezekiel 36:27). When John says “as yet the Spirit had not been given,” he alludes to these Messianic-era endowments of the Spirit.
According to John, the Spirit had not yet been given because the Messiah was not yet glorified. The glorification of the Messiah refers, on the one hand, to his resurrection and ascension, and on the other hand, to his advent in glory in the Messianic Era.5
Subsequent to Yeshua’s resurrection and ascension, a portion of the Spirit was distributed to his disciples as a deposit against the full principle yet to be paid out in the Messianic Era.6 If the Holy Spirit was already active among Jewish people prior to Acts 2 (and by the same token, it can be argued, remains active among Jewish people subsequent to Acts 2), what makes the outpouring of the Spirit upon the believers unique? If I concede that the Spirit of HaShem might actively be at work in the lives of non-Messianic Jews, then what makes the spiritual endowment upon the disciples of Yeshua exceptional in any way?
Only a measure of the Holy Spirit rested upon the prophets:
“He measured weight to the wind [ruach, ‘spirit’]” (Job 28:25). Rabbi Acha said, “Even the Holy Spirit resting upon the prophets does so only by measure, one prophet speaking one scroll of prophecy and another speaking two scrolls.” (Leviticus Rabbah 15:2)
In the case of Yeshua, however, God “gives the Spirit without measure” (John 3:34). According to the rabbis, the Holy Spirit did not rest continually upon the prophets, but only temporarily, for brief durations, but John the Immerser observed that the Spirit descended upon Yeshua as a dove “and it remained upon him” (John 1:32).
When the apostles refer to the Holy Spirit, they mean the Spirit of HaShem in the general sense, just like the term in the Tanach, but they also speak in terms of the “Spirit of Messiah,” which is to say, specifically, the Spirit of HaShem that rested upon Yeshua. At Shavu’ot, the Spirit of HaShem that previously rested upon Yeshua of Nazareth and empowered him to perform miracles and to prophesy now rested upon his disciples. It indicated the validity of the message, “The kingdom of heaven is at hand.” Follow the logic:
But Peter, standing with the eleven, lifted up his voice and addressed them: “Men of Judea and all who dwell in Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and give ear to my words.
For these people are not drunk, as you suppose, since it is only the third hour of the day. But this is what was uttered through the prophet Joel: “And in the last days it shall be, God declares, that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh.” (Acts 2:14–17)
A Hallmark of the Kingdom
Before pressing further, we should restate the points we have learned so far. We asked, “What did John mean that the Holy Spirit had not yet been given?” We discovered two answers as follows:
1. The Shechinah had not yet returned, as predicted by the prophets as a hallmark of the Messianic Era.
2. The Spirit had not yet been poured out on all flesh, as predicted by the prophets as a hallmark of the Messianic Era.
Therefore, the Holy Spirit did not make a dramatic debut onto the scene of Jewish history in Acts 2. The Holy Spirit has always been active in Israel and among the covenant people, but this special outpouring signified something unique, namely, that the kingdom of heaven is at hand. This was the sign of the Messianic Era predicted by the prophets.
These answers to our initial question raise another question: Does the pouring out of the Spirit on the disciples of Yeshua really fulfill these prophecies? Did the Shechinah take up residence again in the Temple in Jerusalem as described by Ezekiel? Was the Spirit poured out upon all flesh as Joel predicted? In order to fulfill the prophecy, the Spirit must be poured out upon all flesh, not just disciples. Sons and daughters must prophesy. Old and young must see dreams and visions. Even the male and female servants must receive the Spirit, and the outpouring must culminate in the great, awesome day of the LORD.
The pouring out of the Spirit of the LORD upon the disciples of Yeshua is an awesome and inspiring thing, but did it really ful- fill Joel 2:28 and other similar prophecies about the Spirit in the Messianic Era? Have we really reached that day and age when the Spirit is upon all flesh, from the least to the greatest, when no man need teach his neighbor, “Know ye the LORD” because they all know him, and when his Torah is written on our hearts and our evil inclinations are subjugated to his commandments, statutes, and judgments, and his Shechinah resides in Zion in our midst? Have we really reached that day, or was Peter jumping the gun a little bit when he said, “This is what was uttered through the prophet Joel”?
A Mashkon
These questions can be answered, in part, from a midrash on the last parashah of the book of Exodus, Parashat Pekudei. In this section of the Torah, Moses completes the sanctuary and the Shechinah of God fills the Tabernacle: “Then the cloud covered the tent of meeting, and the glory of the LORD filled the tabernacle” (Exodus 40:34). The story corresponds with the prophecy in Eze- kiel about the glory of LORD filling the Temple in the Messianic Era. It prophetically depicts the culmination in the Messianic Era when the Shechinah will again take up residence in Zion and the dwelling place of God will be among men.
The first verse of the parashah begins with the words:
ה ֵע ֻדת …
ְׁש ַּכן מ
ְׁש ָּכן ה ִּמ
פקּודי
א ֶּלה
These are the records of the tabernacle, the tabernacle of the testimony, as they were recorded at the commandment of Moses, the responsibility of the Levites under the direction of Ithamar the son of Aaron the priest. (Exodus 38:21)
The Pentecostal Experience
AARON EBY
Ispent most of my childhood years and my early adulthood in an Assemblies of God church. I cherish those years and am
thankful for the experiences I gained from them.
Pentecostalism and its associated charismata have influenced many Christian denominations in much the same way that Chasi- dus and Kabbalah have influenced the whole Jewish community. When we think of the gifts of the Spirit, our mental image natu- rally reflects Pentecostal Christianity, since this is the denomination and movement that sought to restore the spiritual gifts to the church. And as we in the Messianic Jewish movement seek to objectively analyze and possibly incorporate the gifts of the Spirit, it is natural that we would begin by looking at Pentecostalism. But we should at least understand what Pentecostalism is and the mind-set that results in the outward expressions that we associate with the gifts of the Spirit. If we accurately understand Pentecostalism’s attitude toward and implementation of the gifts, then we can evaluate that viewpoint fairly and can determine which aspects of it are in line
with a Messianic Jewish worldview and which are not.
As someone who grew up in a Pentecostal environment and later transitioned into Messianic Judaism, I feel that I have a sense of perspective on the matter.
From my observation, many non-Pentecostal churches seem to like some of the outward expressions of Pentecostalism but do not necessarily embrace the underlying philosophies that gave rise to those expressions. My sense is that most Christians in non Pentecostal denominations who have adopted Pentecostal-like behavior have done so without really understanding what these behaviors signify from a Pentecostal perspective.
I saw another category of responders to Pentecostalism as well: the detractors, who thought we were either insane, demonic, or charlatans. That mind-set always offended me, and it still of- fends me to hear people speak of charismatics that way. There are probably all three of these kinds of people in the charismatic movement, but in my experience most of us were sincere, intel- ligent, sane, and spiritually healthy people who loved God. To an outsider, some of the behaviors associated with the charismatic movement are unsettling, but it’s all too easy to vilify things that one doesn’t understand.
My church’s denomination, the Assemblies of God, originated with the Pentecostal revival that took place in the early twentieth century. There are many interesting features of Pentecostalism, but one main doctrine characterizes Pentecostal Christianity and gave rise to its existence as a separate denomination. It is the concept that the baptism of the Holy Spirit is a distinct event in a believer’s life that happens after one’s initial conversion, separate from water baptism, and that this baptism is specifically evidenced by speak- ing in tongues.
This belief comes from a simple, face-value reading of the book of Acts. Reading it, one can see a clear pattern. People first believe and are “saved.” Then they are baptized with the Holy Spirit, and each time this happens the new believers start speaking in tongues. Pentecostalism began at a time when people believed they were living in the last days. It made sense to them that the signs and miracles that characterized the days of the apostles would happen again as things came full circle. Of course, this was about a hundred years ago, so the eschatological expectations did not materialize quite as soon as Pentecostalism’s founders had imagined. But we in the Assemblies of God churches strongly felt that what we ex- perienced in our denomination more closely matched the stories we read in the book of Acts than what other groups experienced.
That was what we were going for.
We wanted nothing more than to experience and to bask in the presence of God and to be empowered by him to do amazing things. We reasoned that God is supernatural, so any experience
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